Alternate realities

     Those of us who choose a reality based world view are occasionally exposed to the alternatives offered by Faux News and other fantasy right wing sites.   Yesterday, Maria Bartiromo hosted another conspiracy author who confided the present impeachment process is a "secret rite" propagated by cult leader Nancy Pelosi and her lieutenant, Adam Schiff.  The very fact that this bonkers take on a legitimate congressional inquiry can get a national audience is a testament to the Bizzaro World many of our fellow Americans live in today.
     Speaking of alternate realities, the Washington Nationals overturned conventional World Series history by winning 4 games on the road, including the clinching game 7 in Houston.   The Nats have turned many of us into fans, including I'm sure many Montrealers who remember the team's previous incarnation as the Expos.

Baseball as metaphor

   We are six games into a World Series where the visiting team has won every game.  I don't know, but suppose this has never happened before.  I'm sure the stats people have looked it up and will gleefully let us know.  Game 7 could be a tight, well played thriller or a first inning blowout followed by 8 anticlimactic frames.  In either case, I will be sleeping by the time the winning team hoists the trophy.
     I started to write this post using the World Series as a metaphor for either the tRump reelection campaign or the democratic primary currently engaged in selecting a nominee to contest the election. on second thought, it looks like too much of a reach to compare the 2020 elections to a baseball game, although the four hour snoozers I have watched over the years do bear comparison to our convoluted election system.   The presidential sweepstakes has already been running for over a year.
     Cheetolini's effort to gain the approval of the Washington Nationals' fans the other night resulted in a resounding fail as a cascade of boos followed the announcement he was attending the game.  This was followed by chants of "lock him up".   Maybe baseball is a metaphor for the coming election after all.   I look forward to game 7 in both cases, but I am rooting for the first inning blowout in the political campaign.

Of boo-birds and human scum

     Conservatives and some democrats are clutching their pearls and taking to their fainting couches in the wake of the avalanche of boos the president* had to endure at game 5 of the World Series in D.C. the other night.
     Chants of "lock him up" also freaked out the commander in chief who obviously hasn't been at a public event outside of the partisan rallies which validate his ego driven presidency.   Of course the pundits who considered the same chant directed at Hillary Clinton during campaign rallies as tRump being tRump are now calling out anyone who applauds him getting the same treatment as hypocrites.  However, it seems to me that what is good for the goose is good for the gander.
     tRump's reference to anyone who doesn't love him as human scum is another low point (if it can get any lower) of this presidency.  As Michelle Goldberg writes in the NYT today, while it seems anyone who criticizes The Donald from inside the GOP is offering tepid condemnation at best, we should at least acknowledge the courage it takes to even hint the president* is sullying the office he holds and almost daily violating the oath he took in 2017.   While it is hard for me to sympathize with Mittens Romney, I will make the attempt.

Gardening update

    Another inch of rain over the weekend makes he happier than ever I planted my garlic between 1 and 2 weeks ago under much more clement conditions.  The present warm wet weather will give way later this week to cold wet weather and a few snowflakes on Halloween.   There is always a fear of planting garlic and other fall bulbs too early and seeing them sprout in November only to see them nipped by the winds and cold of winter.   I have become more sanguine about this risk in my old age, preferring comfort and risk to planting in frozen mud.  I will leave that delight to my brother Neil.
     We celebrated a slew of October birthdays at Casa Monzeglio last night.  There used to be a paucity of nativities in the 10th month, but the additions of Rick, Benny and Wyatt to the roster to go along with Natalie has made it much busier.  Congratulations to all the Birthday people!

The real silver bullet

      As virtually every pundit says at least once during presidential elections, "it's the economy, stupid".   No matter how personally repugnant the current occupant of the Oval Office may be, the conventional wisdom is if voters are feeling good about their economic prospects, they may feel tRump deserves another 4 years.
     Now comes a column by nobel laureate Paul Krugman which may throw cold water on the tRump campaign's supporters.   Krugman lays out the case that although the economy in general is still in pretty good shape, the president's* trade wars and erratic foreign policy is harming global growth and causing ripples in the key states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania which delivered the 2016 election to the GOP candidate by a collective margin of less than 75,000 votes.
     I am reminded of the economic argument by conversations with an obvious tRumper with whom I was playing golf last week.  Despite the unspoken rule that politics is a taboo subject on a golf course, this yahoo, who was a random addition to our foursome for a charity tournament averred that while The Donald may not be the nicest human on the planet, at least the economy was growing on his watch.   That may be the current perception, but the collapse of business confidence in the face of our erratic commander in chief's policies may overtake the rosy economic narrative by the late summer of 2020.   Combined with the probable impeachment of Cheetolini, even diehard republicans may have to revise their allegiance to this boil on the collective butt of America.

The fragility of democracy

     As demonstrated by the demise of such varied democracies as ancient Athens, Rome, the French Republic and the Wiemar republic in Germany, the vesting of actual governmental power in ordinary citizens through the exercise of the voting franchise is under constant attack.  The tRump administration is the latest example of how the powerful try to undermine democratic norms.
     A lawyer for the administration actually made the argument the president is above the law and immune from investigation or prosecution short of impeachment.  Meanwhile, the White House counsel is arguing the president* does not have to cooperate with an impeachment inquiry.   So, 243 years after starting a war to free ourselves from the tyranny of King George III, we are now witness to the spectacle of Cheetolini declaring himself a virtual monarch.   Coupled with his vague threats to delay the 2020 elections, we are now spectators to the slow motion implosion of American democracy.
     Now comes a court order compelling the administration to turn over documents related to the impeachment investigation.  Should tRump order non compliance with the order, we will have reached a crisis point.  The judicial branch has no ability to force compliance with court orders except through the DOJ.   That department, under William Barr is unlikely to do anything in this regard.  This is how democracies die.

Oxygen starvation

     As usual, the latest tales of malfeasance by the tRump administration are dominating news coverage to the exclusion of many stories of vital significance.   The confirmation by a career state department official that indeed a quid pro quo was operative in the Ukraine scandal has certainly ensured most other news will be blotted out for days if not weeks.  Similarly, the fight to get the release of The Donald's tax returns will soak up the efforts of many reporters who would ordinarily be covering news of climate change and a hundred other pressing problems facing humanity.
   

Eye of the storm

    From a democratic perspective, the events and revelations of the last couple of weeks concerning the malfeasance of the tRump administration have been a godsend.  In the wake of the Mueller report and it's author's refusal to say point blank in testimony before Congress that Cheetolini and his henchmen colluded with the Russians the party was in free fall.  Then tRump decided to up the ante by hijacking American foreign policy to facilitate his re-election.
    In addition, since most of the competent people in the administration have been forced out or resigned, the lickspittles who remain seemingly can't keep their stories straight.  So, impeachment must be a slam dunk.  Maybe, but I can't help feeling democrats are missing an opportunity.   Nancy Pelosi wants a "laser focused" investigation of the Ukraine scandal, excluding virtually all of tRump's other corrupt acts.  She says it will be simpler to make the case to the American people if the House concentrates on one scandal amidst the plethora of corruption.
    Many democrats feel a wide ranging investigation over a timeline which ignores the impending 2020 elections is the way to approach this opportunity.   A continuous avalanche of information recounting this corruption will peel away most thinking citizens, leaving The Donald with the cult following of roughly 30%.  These people would literally let their dear leader get away with murder.  However, their numbers are not enough to get him re-elected.

Seasonal dread

    As the gardening season winds down, the pleasure of harvest without continuous planting and weeding is balanced by the thought that soon Mother Nature will curtail all gardening activities.  I planted the rest of my garlic seed to avoid the possibility of an early freeze.  With the temperature right now registering a balmy 60 degrees with bright sunshine that fear seems unfounded.  But as a North Country resident for almost 19 years, I know the weather can turn in a heartbeat.  In 1972, according to Vermont public radio on this day, temperatures were in the low teens in Burlington and they never recovered from that.  Just sayin.....

When you have lost David Brooks...

     For those of you under 60, the title of this post recalls LBJ's anguished quote, "if I've lost Walter Cronkite, I've lost middle America" in reaction to the CBS news anchor's criticism of the Vietnam war in 1968.  Cronkite's criticism caused Johnson to not run for a 2nd term in 1968, paving the way for republicans to regain the White House after their landslide loss in 1964.
     Of course, David Brooks is no Walter Cronkite.  The latter had cachet among a wide swath of America.  His credibility was the gold standard at the time.  Brooks is a cranky right of center columnist for the NYT who specializes in pretending non partisanship while always skewering the democratic side of any issue.   I'm sure he is mostly ridiculed by the Faux News viewership of flyover America if anyone out there pays him any attention.   However, his column today is likely to be quoted on the moderate side of the right wing.  He anguishes over a hypothetical choice in the 2020 election between Cheetolini and Elizabeth Warren and comes down pretty firmly for Warren.
    There are many months to go before the nominating conventions, but the possibility of the dems nominating Warren has gone from a fringe dream to a valid possibility and if conservatives like Brooks are counseling a vote for a champion of the supposed far left, Warren can probably count on a least a half dozen votes from moderate republicans who actually read Brooks' column!

Waiting for clarity

     As a supporter and contributor to Elizabeth Warren's campaign, I was both gratified and somewhat puzzled by her performance in Tuesday night's debate.   As the frontrunner, she was the target of virtually everyone on the stage and for the most part she met the attacks with the insouciant confidence which inspires my support.
     However, on one issue that may be a harbinger she chose to deflect instead of clarify.   When asked by one of the moderators in typical "gotcha" type format whether she intends to raise taxes on the middle class in order to pay for her version of Medicare for All, she demurred and stated that costs would go up for the wealthy and corporations, but not for the middle class.   You can call this disingenuous or a polite answer to a loaded question, but I think in the long run, Warren will have to give explicit answers to this and other questions which will frame her candidacy.
      Yes, taxes will go up for many in the putative middle class, especially those with gold plated health care plans they obtain through their employers.   The flip side of this is that many more will see their out of pocket expenses and premiums go down.   The hard truth is in order to cover all Americans with decent health care, a significant percentage of us will pay more.
      Ms. Warren needs to tell us exactly how her plan will work for all of us in such a manner we will be inspired by the access we will all have to quality care.   The republican tactic will be to divide us on the basis of who will assume an extra burden in order to guarantee access for the less fortunate among us, much as they did when Bill and Hillary Clinton tried to reform the system in 1992-93.  I think there is a hunger in America for a populism which lifts and unites us instead of Cheetolini's version which encourages division.   Liz owes it to all of us to trust our better angels.

scary consensus

    At least according to the media, Liz Warren is the new front runner in the democratic primary race.   She certainly endured the most attacks.   Her fellow candidates seemed mostly to want her to admit she will raise middle class taxes in order to pay for Medicare for all.  That, or the horror of "kicking people off their private insurance".
    I  suppose this was inevitable, given the rise of Warren in the polls.  There is something about her earnest, folksy mannerisms and her rollout of a "plan for this" every week that encourages many democratic voters to believe we finally have a candidate to beat the incompetent buffoon who now inhabits the White House.  It is a little dispiriting however, when you realize that virtually every person on the debate stage last night would be a better president than Cheetolini and the only way they get to prove it is by attacking each other until the last man/woman standing.

Decisions

      Democrats in the House have been given plenty of cover to vote for the impeachment of Cheetolini by the recent testimony of the former ambassador to Ukraine and tRump's former chief advisor on Russian affairs.  Both Marie Yovanovitch and Fiona Hill blew the whistle on Rudy Giuliani's shadow foreign policy in Ukraine despite being instructed not to appear before Congress by the State Department and the White House.  To tRump's detractors they are hero's.  To his fans they are turncoats.
     The main thrust of both women's testimony (notice it is women who continue to defy the Orange Buffoon) is Giuliani had both the blessing of his client and somehow he acquired the means to spend extended time in Ukraine putting pressure on the government of that country to present the tRump campaign with dirt on Hunter and Joe Biden.  The fact it would be made up scandal seems not to have bothered either of the conspirators.
     It looks like a steady stream of witnesses have decided to violate the omerta demanded by the Oval Office.   We will probably be presented with blockbuster testimony on a daily basis as more and more career officials decide not to take one for Donny douchebag.   There remains only the vote for impeachment and the spectacle of republican congressmen soiling themselves as they try to justify votes for or against the trial of the president*.
      In other, more pressing news, I did decide to split the difference.   I planted half of my garlic seed yesterday and will wait 2 weeks to plant the rest of it.  That should be a real world trial of whether it is better to plant under optimum conditions or possibly be stuck jamming cloves into muddy, half frozen soil.   I am so not looking forward to the latter possibility.

To Plant or Not to plant

      It is a little early to be planting garlic in the North Country, at least now in the era of climate change.  A warm, wet spell from now until early November, such as we had in 2016 could cause the garlic to sprout.   Even a normal winter with some zero degree days would be enough to kill the sprouted plants.  However, with 2 inches of rain predicted on Wed. and Thursday and no warming predicted after, I think I will take the gamble and plant.
     Of course for me it is a double whammy.  We are planning to sell Casa Monzeglio sometime in the next few months and there is a real possibility all my work will ensure the new owner harvests a bumper crop of garlic.   I guess we will see how this plays out between now and next spring.  

What will it take

      Far too many of the blog posts I read on a regular basis are now speculating about the damage the president* may do to our democracy during a second term.   I know it is prudent to imagine a worst case scenario when it comes to the 2020 elections, but I wonder if the mere imagining of a second term for the orange buffoon gives oxygen to a campaign with a lead pillow on its face.
     Some of my conservative facebook friends were ecstatic over the story that Elizabeth Warren's claim she was let go at a teaching job in New Jersey in 1971 because she was pregnant was false (spoiler alert, it is true).  An interview with the principal at the time should clear up the controversy, but that is not the way tRump's true believers bought in to the story.   The fact their dear leader trains a fire hose of lies on the public every day of his presidency* means nothing.  Even the possibility of an opponent lying even once is enough to fuel their outrage.  I truly believe there is no smoking cannon large enough to dent their faith in Cheetolini.
     Meanwhile, the MSM continues to play the "both sides" card.   The NYT published an op-ed by the discredited hack Peter Schwiezer , the author of "Clinton Cash", claiming there is really a Biden scandal in the Ukraine.  With a feckless media on The Donald's side it makes me anxious for the future of this country.   As Paul Krugman points out in the same NYT, our only hope may be in the character flaws such as stupidity, laziness and an inability to admit he is wrong that tRump deals with every day of this nightmare presidency.

Facebooking our way to totalitarianism

     It seems Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook can be bought if you are willing to fork over $1.7 million a week for "fake news" ads targeting an increasingly credulous audience.  That is how much the tRump re-election campaign is paying Facebook.  In return, the social media giant is allowing the lies contained in these ads  to go unchecked and into circulation.  There they are liked, shared and passed on as truth by millions of the president's* poorly educated fans.
     Facebook claims this exception to their policy of not allowing obvious falsehoods in their ads is reserved for politicians, but it seems anyone with sufficient amounts of money can conjure their own reality and force the rest of us to share it.

The latest and the greatest

    The sectors of the media which cashes in on either opposition to or adoration of Cheetolini have been having a field day as new revelations about the administration's Ukraine policies waterfall over every other concern.   Followers of Rachel Maddow and Sean Hannity alike are treated to doomsday scenarios which involve usurpation of government by the left or the right.
    That is not, of course to argue that this is a "both sides do it" as the rest of the MSM likes to do.   The facts are overwhelmingly in favor of Maddow et al.   The transcript of tRump's call to the Ukrainian president, doctored though it probably was show not only an illegal attempt to obtain something of value from the Ukrainians, namely help to smear Joe Biden, tRump's supposed electoral challenger, but an obvious quid pro quo.  Our president* was threatening to  withhold military aid to the Ukraine until his request was fulfilled.
    The White House counsel has now sent an absurdly political document to Congress essentially saying the legislative branch cannot investigate the president because he stands above the law.  I think even Hannity might have trouble swallowing that minnow.  The impeachment process will now drag out into 2020 and republicans will howl that democrats are playing politics.  However, tRump knows this is his last refuge as more and more of those pesky, liberal leaning things known as facts undercut his defenses.

The new/old GOP

   As Paul Krugman and Jamaal Bouie point out in today's NYT, the republican party of today is not your father's or even your crazy uncle's GOP.   It has out crazyed the small government conservatives who voted for or at least tolerated the Bob Dole wing of the party.   Dole and others like him, while decrying democratic policies were at least willing to work across the aisle to pass needed legislation.  The give and take of politics drove both parties to at least occasionally work together for the common good.
     Fast forward to 2019.  The grim reaper of the Senate, Moscow Mitch McConnel has unilaterally killed any bill originating in Nancy Pelosi's House.  Meanwhile, the Senate has passed no legislation worth compromising.   They are too busy confirming arch conservative and in many cases unqualified judges to lifetime positions where they can block any  progressive agenda.
    This is the present day GOP.  As with any political party hanging on to power, the only way to get republicans to change is to defeat them convincingly at the ballot box.  As long as enough Americans like the policies the party represents; low taxes for the rich, an increasingly shredded social safety net and casual cruelty to immigrants and the poor, they will remain in power.

Weather or not

   Well, we flirted with our first frost of the season at Casa Monzeglio this weekend and it was a mixed result.  We were kissed, but not carried to the logical conclusion of the courtship.  The leaves on the last row of greenbeans were burned and the open zinnia flowers were singed, but otherwise the remaining crops in the garden were untouched.  Even the dread galinsoga weed, my personal plant thermometer was barely touched.  We are getting a fairly heavy rain this morning, but the rest of the week looks dry and will be a bit warmer which should help the broccoli continue to generate side shoots and bring on the last of the cauliflower.
    Meanwhile, we had a 21st century yard sale.  By that I mean I was treated to a lesson on how to generate interest in old junk and new!   As we sat and waited for customers for some of the larger items and some unopened treasures generated by the Divine Mrs. M's QVC addiction, my eldest daughter leaped into action and posted some items on facebook and local versions of same.   The posts generated immediate results and we were able to sell many items online instead of haggling with the yard sailors who would probably have snatched some merchandise at distressed prices and promptly offered it online.  Nevertheless, we probably averaged about 15 cents on the dollar overall.  It was better than hauling much of it to the local landfill, but it was 2 days of my life I'll never get back.   One customer asked us if we did this every weekend!  Now that is my idea of perdition.

Normalizing the unthinkable

    As most democrats face palm themselves and the MAGA crowd cheers him on, The Donald, fresh from a public meltdown has apparently doubled down on his impeachable conduct by calling for the Chinese to launch an investigation into the Biden family.  This comes after new information shows career diplomats were horrified by tRump's plan to extort the Ukrainian government's cooperation in smearing Biden by denying military aid needed to combat Russian aggression.
    It sure looks like Cheetolini has decided to test the infamous boast he mad during the republican primaries in 2016, claiming he could shoot someone in broad daylight on 5th Avenue and he would not lose support.  Now he is committing a breach of the public trust in front of reporters with the China gambit.   He knows the democrats have him on Ukraine gate with more evidence appearing every day.  By committing another crime in front of the nation he obviously is trying to normalize criminal conduct.   So far he is not succeeding.  Polls show a majority of Americans in favor of impeachment.
     While the ultimate aim of impeachment is removal from office, it would take a tsunami of republican voters turning away from the president* to convince GOP senators to vote for conviction.  This will not happen unless the economy continues to tank in coming months.  The party will continue to support this embarrassment of a presidency so long as the good times roll.  The worst part of this whole episode is how it lays out a blueprint for future demagogues to further erode the foundation of our democracy.

Whining past the graveyard

   The spittle flecked rage the world was treated to yesterday must look pretty alarming to our allies and enemies alike.   The president of Finland was in a front row seat as tRump put on a show for the national news, not to mention the dozens of deranged tweets he put up earlier in the day.
    As many pundits have noted, Cheetolini's default setting is outrage and his favorite attack mode is whining about the terrible treatment he is receiving from the media and congress.   No president has ever been treated as badly as he, despite the continuing fawning coverage by right wing media with the possible exception of the straight news division at Fox.  At least this is what he claims.  Barack Obama and certainly Hillary Clinton would beg to differ.
    Like a terrier with a rat in its mouth, Congress has the Ukrainegate scandal and it is not likely to let it go.   That means we will be treated to several months of self pity and aggrandizement by the tweeter in chief.  All the while, his staff and republicans in congress will have their fingers in the wind, measuring public reaction to the latest scandal du jour and plotting their own endgames.  It could get very lonely at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. by Christmas.

The coming crisis

     Unless our president* does something so outrageous it cannot be ignored we are headed toward an election night crisis in 2020.   The current Ukrainegate scandal barely registers with tRump's base and Moscow Mitch will make sure even if impeachment occurs, any trial in the Senate will be a farce.  That leaves a free and fair election as the only means of removing a manifestly unfit man from the most powerful position in the world.
     The latest talking points coming out of the White House and the deranged tweets by it's titular inhabitant posit more of the "deep state" cabal trying to illegitimately remove Cheetolini in another witch hunt.  More worrying of course is the thinly veiled threat that tRump will ignore election results if he loses and the possibility many republicans will continue their craven support even at that juncture.  Worse yet, with his tiny fingers on the levers of power, however ineptly, the possibility of rigged election results remains a viable scenario.
     While talk of a civil war fought in the streets of America on behalf of the orange buffoon seems wildly over the top (most of his most ardent supporters use walkers or electric scooters), the threat of armed conflict along with election rigging is enough to give pause to those who believe in American exceptionalism.

Hazy and Lazy

     In the universe of cable news there is a very clear dichotomy;  Faux News and its fellow travelers, Limbaugh and Breitbart posit the glorious reign of the benevolent Emperor tRump.   In this scenario, everything in the news is clear evidence Cheetolini is pure as driven snow and any dispute of this is virtual treason.   Most of the rest of cable is either posing as a neutral arbiter of the facts, ala Rachel Maddow, or making every fact fit a predetermined narrative as her following program host, Lawrence O'Donnell does.
     Most of the news junkies and politically active citizens fit into one camp or the other.  The rare bird who calls BS on both sides is the exception and there are few who do so on a consistent basis.  Facebook is full of people who post on both sides of every issue, but again, I think in most cases it is knee jerk conservatism or liberalism which motivates them.  Both sides aim to provoke tears of rage from each other.  Clarity and facts be damned.
    The trouble with both models is they premise a loyal audience willing to be disappointed again and again as  the narratives spun on a nightly basis fail to catch up with the prosaic reality.